When I grow up (which is in less than three months now), I want to work for a humanitarian, non-profit organization. Basically I want to do what I did this summer. I want to talk to people who have been affected by natural disasters, economical disasters and disasters in general. I want to hear their stories, and I want to tell them. I want to bring about change in every small way I can. I want to travel the world, and I don't want to do anything that involves a newspaper. So that makes this assignment difficult for me. Generally, I couldn't find any fielded data for any humanitarian organizations; as they are not typical news organizations, this fact shouldn't be surprising. So I've changed it a bit ... I just picked my favorite source for news (CNN) and checked out their fielded data. I have no desire to work for them; my resume won't get sent there unless I haven't found anything in the non-profit world by December. But for this assignment, I wasn't sure what else to do ...
I chose the sports section of CNN; specifically I looked at the scoreboard for ACC football. It's pretty inclusive of everything one would want to know. I can find out who played who for every single week, I can find out the scores and I can find stats on the players and the teams. From a journalistic perspective, I honestly don't think they're missing anything. I used to work on the sports desk for a local paper, and while their standards weren't very high, I could definitely have written an informative article based on the information provided. I also would have called coaches and maybe players for quotes, but you can't include that in a database anyway. So I'll just move on to the next part ...
The data isn't presented in a spreadsheet, so you can't just look at the rows or columns and say, "Oh, here are the entities." I think it would be unreasonable to expect it to be in spreadsheet form; that's not aesthetically pleasing. However, it's still fairly easy to tell what the entities are; they are as follows: the teams playing, when they play(ed) and final score. For games that have yet to be played, they are scored/game and allowed/game.
The properties in this data base are as follows (I'm not listing all of them because this blog would be forever long and I would miss class):
Teams Playing: Wake, Miami, Florida State, Boston College, etc.
When they play(ed): August 23, 2010 - November 28, 2010
Final Score: 53-13, 45-0, 59-6, etc.
Ranking: 13, 20, 16, not ranked, etc.
Honestly this "fielded data" was hard to use to answer all of these questions, so it may not be as good as I had originally thought. If it had been set up in some sort of table, that might have been easier.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Collecting and using data
Things I didn't understand
XML
I understand the basic concept of XML, but what is it's advantage over HTML? Also, I wasn't aware that there are not predefined tags for XML. That just sound confusing. How does that work?
Page scraping
My question about this one is pretty simple - how does it work?
Relational databases
Same question as before - how does it work?
Normal forms
I just got confused in this section ... I'm not sure that I understand the point.
Things that were left out
The chapter says that databases were not good storytelling tools until they were on the Web. When did that happen? How can we continue to improve?
How do we, as journalists, cipher through all the data we collect to put it into an easy-to-read format for readers?
The chapter discusses how a misspelling often leads to a false negative in search results. It then lists ways to avoid that. Think about Google. When you misspell something, it shows results for what it thinks you may be trying to spell. Can't databases offer something similar to that?
Can other tools be as dynamic as maps? What would these tools look like, and what would their functions be?
XML
I understand the basic concept of XML, but what is it's advantage over HTML? Also, I wasn't aware that there are not predefined tags for XML. That just sound confusing. How does that work?
Page scraping
My question about this one is pretty simple - how does it work?
Relational databases
Same question as before - how does it work?
Normal forms
I just got confused in this section ... I'm not sure that I understand the point.
Things that were left out
The chapter says that databases were not good storytelling tools until they were on the Web. When did that happen? How can we continue to improve?
How do we, as journalists, cipher through all the data we collect to put it into an easy-to-read format for readers?
The chapter discusses how a misspelling often leads to a false negative in search results. It then lists ways to avoid that. Think about Google. When you misspell something, it shows results for what it thinks you may be trying to spell. Can't databases offer something similar to that?
Can other tools be as dynamic as maps? What would these tools look like, and what would their functions be?
Sunday, September 26, 2010
A murder mystery about "The News Reporter"
Our blog assignment is to post our stories about our trips. I'd like to do that, but I haven't seen my story since I sent it off Friday night. I assume we are still working on it. The story is going to be long; it wouldn't properly fit into a blog post anyway. I took my creative writing minor and ran with it; I never get to use it in real-life situations. However, just for the sake of the assignment, I'm going to post what I wrote. It will be a teaser. If you want to find out how it ends, you'll have to find out from our other group members :). Let's embark on a murder mystery ...
The (Attempted) Murder of The News Reporter
He’s in critical condition, but they think he’s going to make it. That’s all we know right now. The News Reporter was a nice enough paper. There’s no obvious reason that anyone would have tried to murder him. The people of Whiteville, N.C. are worried. Of course they hope he makes a full recovery (almost everyone in town enjoys his news), but without knowing the motive, they can’t know who might be next.
We would like to tell these people not to worry. However, we can’t give that assurance. We’re Dr. Thornburg’s Fantastic Four – Amanda, Chelsea, Elizabeth and Lauren – here to save the town. Mr. High, the owner of The News Reporter, has hired us to find the culprit. But we’re totally unfamiliar with this foreign place, and scoping out suspects, clues and motives is a daunting task. Luckily, the people of Whiteville are talkative and friendly. As each hour goes by, they’re feeding us more and more useful information. That’s how we’ve come up with a fully comprehensive list of suspects. It’s also how, one by one, we’re marking them off.
So far, we don’t know who the attempted murderer is. We only know who it is not. Right now, I can certainly tell you that it’s not …
Renee Foster, continental breakfast extraordinaire
We met Renee at Best Western. We walked in, still almost asleep, at 8:30 a.m. “You girls are lucky,” she said. “I was just getting ready to put everything up and walk out.”
We dragged our feet across the floor to the small selection of food. Whereas some people might think of eggs, bacon, gravy and biscuits when they come across a “continental breakfast,” Renee only offered us a few different kinds of cereal, cans of fruit that were suspiciously wet and a couple of plain bagels. We sat down with our coffee, and before we could even begin to plan our course of action, Renee sat down with us. She didn’t ask where we were from or what we were doing.
“I’m so tired,” she said. “I was just getting ready to walk home. I’m taking classes over at the middle school for my GED right now. I’m taking language arts and math. I always hated math, but it’s easy. Well, it’s not easy, but once you get into it, it’s fun. Let me tell you, I love doing fractions!” Renee didn’t even seem to pause for a breath. She was a lot to handle at 8:30. She continued to talk for a while, and soon we had heard stories about everything from her grandbaby to her high school days.
“I’m leaving when I get my GED. I’ve worked at Best Western for two years, but I’m going to go somewhere else when I’m done.”
There was no way to smoothly turn this conversation in the direction we wanted it to go, so Elizabeth just finally stepped up. “How do you feel about The News Reporter?”
“Oh, what happened is a terrible thing. But honestly, I don’t have time to read it. I’m either at work or at class, and when I’m not, I just want to relax. I think it’s a great paper.”
Her story didn’t seem convincing. Although there was no obvious motive for why she would have tried to kill the paper, she didn’t have a strong emotional attachment to it. “Where were you on the night of the attempted murder of the paper?”
“Last Monday? I had class. You can check at the middle school if you want.” She paused. “Hey, would y’all mind giving me a ride? I live right behind the newspaper office.”
We agreed to give Renee a ride, and then we made a quick call to the middle school. Her alibi checked out. Suspect one was out.
We were back to having no leads, but that wouldn’t be our status for long. As we walked into the newspaper office, we met Mark, the man who designs the online portion of The News Reporter. “Hi, are y’all from Chapel Hill?” he asked. Apparently word about the Fantastic Four had spread quickly. “Let me take you to Mr. High’s office.”
As we walked into the tiny newsroom and down the hall, Mark briefly filled us in on his work. “We think that this online site is going to be the only way to save The News Reporter’s life,” he said. “It’s going to be a serious overhaul. Lots of plastic surgery will be involved, but at this point, there’s nothing else we can do. The paper will still exist in the print edition – we sell hundreds of copies that way – but we want this website to completely redesign the paper. It will be like a whole new life for it.”
“And I suppose you want us to help with that,” Chelsea muttered.
“Of course we do. But first on the agenda, we have to find the killer. Here is Mr. High’s office. He’ll be in within the next few minutes.”
We looked around the office. There was a copy of the paper on the floor, so we picked it up. Within the advertising section, we saw J. Ray Realty. We weren’t exactly sure why a real estate agent would kill the paper, but she immediately seemed suspicious. We had no other leads, so we formulated a plan to descend on her office immediately. As we ran out of the office, we ran into Mr. High.
“Hello, ladies. Where are you hurrying off to?”
“Sorry to just run off, but we think we may have a lead,” Amanda said. “We need to get to her immediately.”
“Who is it?”
“J. Ray of J. Ray Realty.”
“Oh, she worked for our paper for several years. She sold ads. I would be surprised if she had anything to do with it.”
“Mr. High, you might be surprised about a lot of things. We don’t know what a former employee’s motivation might be, but we need to see her right away.”
“Very well. You ladies are doing good work. Keep it up.” We continued to run out the door and to the car, but when we cranked it, it was dead.
“We don’t have time for this!” Chelsea said. She busted back into the office, and ran straight to the receptionist’s desk. “Does anyone have jumper cables?”
Everyone seemed to have jumper cables. Within minutes, half of the staff was outside. They did quick introductions, jumped the car and then the Fantastic Four climbed back in.
“Thanks!” Amanda said. “Oh, and we have one more thing. Where is J. Ray Realty?”
“Just go right up to Madison Street, take a left and go around the traffic circle at the courthouse,” the receptionist said. “Her building has a red awning over it.”
The Fantastic Four sped off to see their next suspect …
J. Ray, sassy real estate agent
J. Ray was less than 5 feet tall, but what she didn’t have in height, she made up for in attitude. She was friendly, but she didn’t mind telling us her opinion of everything we asked about and a lot of what we didn’t ask about. We sat down in the kitchen of her office, and she started talking before we even had our notebooks and pens ready.
“I’ve been on both sides of the advertising thing. I sold ads, and now I take out an ad. But I do it more out of obligation than anything else. The sellers want to see their ads in the paper, so I buy a bulk rate. I also do it out of a sense of community; it’s based on the relationship that I have with the people at the newspaper. I used to advertise every week, but it just didn’t seem like it was worth it. I’d really like to advertise with the paper online. I’ve heard that the website will save the paper’s life. If that’s the case, I’m excited. When people can click on my ad and go straight to our website, I feel like we’ll be getting a lot more business.”
“What does your company already do online?” Amanda asked.
“We use Facebook. Honestly, in a small place like Whiteville, people just want to use Facebook to get all up in everyone’s business. I don’t want any part in it. But if you want a successful business, you have to do it. That’s what people want.”
“What do you think about The News Reporter?” Chelsea asked.
“I don’t have time for the news. When I want news, I watch ‘Good Morning America.’ I scan the paper for obituaries, and I like to look at the ‘DIDYOB?’ section. I also try to look at the front pages and the pictures, but other than that, I don’t pay a lot of attention to it.”
“And besides ads, what do you think about having to reconstruct the paper so that it goes online?” Elizabeth asked.
“It doesn’t really matter to me. I don’t use the Internet at home. I have a Droid, but I’ve never even been on the Internet with it. People do seem to comment on our online presence, so I think it will be good for us.”
We were all thinking the same thing. J. Ray seemed to love the idea of having the paper online for her business. If she knew that an online reconstruction could save the paper, her business was the perfect motive for attempting to kill it. “Where were you on the night of the attempted murder of the paper?” Chelsea asked.
“Am I a suspect? That’s just silly. I was selling a house on Hickory Road to four girls who recently graduated from college. Here’s their number. Ask them.”
Chelsea called the number, and all four girls backed up J. Ray’s story. Once again, it seemed like we had hit a wall. Suspect number two was not the culprit. Defeated, we walked out the door and started to stroll down Madison Street.
However, our list of suspects wasn’t over yet. As we walked down the street, we saw a florist shop. We were initially attracted to it because of the mounds of Carolina décor in the window, so we walked in. It was there that we met suspect number three …
I'm impressed if you stuck with me thus far. That's where my part of the story ended, and Amanda picked it up. I'm as anxious as you are to read the rest ...
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Whiteville plans
Our blog assignment is to write about what we're doing in Whiteville Thursday. This assignment should be pretty easy because I'm the "problem solver" (which honestly makes me think of a title of someone in the Mafia who "gets rid of" problematic people). So that means I have no idea what I'm doing until tomorrow. Thus ends my blog.
OK, it was a fake ending. I'm sure I have something to say about Whiteville, although I'll admit it's not much. It's true that I have no idea what sort of problems I'll be solving. But I do know that I want to find these "edge users" we spoke of in class. When I think of edge users, I initially think of high school students, although I'm unsure why. It definitely creates a problem because you can't just walk into a high school and start interviewing and stalking people. Of course we listed tons of other edge users, and I intend to find at least one of them. I have no idea what I'll ask that person, but I'm sort of hoping it just pops into my head when I get there.
Honestly, I want to explore the town a little before I get into the assignment. Elizabeth and I are going down tomorrow night, so we'll be around for a while before we have to start solving problems. Once I feel out the town a bit, I'm hoping I'll understand our assignment better and have more to blog about. Until then, it's time to prepare for this trip (by diving into the thousand things I have to do before I leave).
OK, it was a fake ending. I'm sure I have something to say about Whiteville, although I'll admit it's not much. It's true that I have no idea what sort of problems I'll be solving. But I do know that I want to find these "edge users" we spoke of in class. When I think of edge users, I initially think of high school students, although I'm unsure why. It definitely creates a problem because you can't just walk into a high school and start interviewing and stalking people. Of course we listed tons of other edge users, and I intend to find at least one of them. I have no idea what I'll ask that person, but I'm sort of hoping it just pops into my head when I get there.
Honestly, I want to explore the town a little before I get into the assignment. Elizabeth and I are going down tomorrow night, so we'll be around for a while before we have to start solving problems. Once I feel out the town a bit, I'm hoping I'll understand our assignment better and have more to blog about. Until then, it's time to prepare for this trip (by diving into the thousand things I have to do before I leave).
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Websites and such
I need to rant for just a moment. The thing is, it really angers me that AP changed the correct style from "Web site" to "website." It's hard to remember. It was really a pointless change. And most importantly, I felt good about myself when I wrote "Web site." I felt superior, like I knew something that so many other people did not. But then suddenly I was out of the loop. I remember the day I found out. It was my first week of work this summer, and some guy came by my cubicle for a morning chat. (I have found that in the workplace, people do a lot more chatting than working.) He saw my AP Stylebook on my desk, and we started to discuss. As typical office chatter generally goes, he tried to be witty. "Yeah, I can't believe they recently changed the style for 'website.' What are they going to do next? Take the hyphen out of 'e-mail'?" I was appalled that I didn't know, so I just laughed (a fake laugh, obviously, as the comment was about as nerdy [and yet cute and journalisty, which I appreciated] as they come) and nodded my head. "I know, right?" Then I searched online diligently for whether this change had actually taken place, and I couldn't find news of it anywhere. Honestly, something like that should be publicized a little more.
But anyway, I have websites (it irks me so much) to discuss.
First there's Mooco. I'm much better at giving criticism rather than praise, so that's the route I'm going to go. First, you have to know what you're looking for. You need SOMETHING to type into the search bar; there's no browse option. I only know one person from the Southern Pines area, so I typed in his name. (I felt like a creeper.) No results were found; perhaps it's because he recently moved. After that, I just typed "J. Smith" so I could get some results. (I also tried "Wal-Mart.") I like the way the information is compiled, but honestly, I'm not sure that I saw much use for it. Basically it was the white pages, just on a more specific website. And the button labeled "website" is really just a Google search. Why wouldn't I just use white pages and Google? The website is a nice thought, but honestly, it doesn't seem to offer me anything new or exciting.
As for Bakotopia, there's a lot of stuff on the homepage. I call it stuff because it overwhelmed me and I just really didn't want to look through all of it. One thing I did like on the homepage was the calendar. Other than that, the website pretty much failed. My biggest problem was that there was no news search option (or at least I couldn't find one). If I'm looking for a specific article, I don't want to look through pages and pages of articles I don't care about. My other big concern was that the classified links didn't exactly work. They would take you to a page, but the page always said "no posts in this category." That was frustrating. A tiny contention I have, and this problem is barely worth mentioning, had to do with the ads. I realize that Bakersfield is in California and marijuana is legal there for medical purposes. I'm OK with that, and if we're asking my personal opinion, I don't see why it shouldn't be legal everywhere. That's totally beside the point. The point is that some people don't share my opinion, and when they see an ad for "420 Evaluations" that promises weed to anyone with pot leaves all over the background of it, they may be taken aback. I realize that websites need ad revenue, but if the ads you choose to run make your customers run away, is it worth it? Of course I have no research on this subject at all, and for all I know, all users of Bakotopia may love weed. The name of the site certainly makes me question.
I'm a little biased toward Ushahidi because I spent some time in Kenya this summer. I appreciated that they had an extensive "about us" section so that I knew exactly what the website was about (although honestly the video almost put me to sleep). The downside is that the application (or whatever exactly it is) has to be downloaded. That seemed like too much, so I didn't bother with it. Doesn't it seem likely that other people would feel that way too?
Bluffton, although slightly overwhelming like Bakotopia, actually had really good organization. There's a place to search, and everything is divided into sections. I like that. Guardian seemed similar, with everything you could want in one spot.
Gas buddy, which I assume everyone enjoys, is really convenient. I think it's a great example of useful information put into an easy-to-use database. The unfortunate part is that it doesn't have gas prices for everywhere (such as my hometown), but overall, I think it does a pretty good job.
After all this rambling, you might ask what my conclusion is. And I would tell you ...
Making a useful, easy-to-use and simple database is hard.
But anyway, I have websites (it irks me so much) to discuss.
First there's Mooco. I'm much better at giving criticism rather than praise, so that's the route I'm going to go. First, you have to know what you're looking for. You need SOMETHING to type into the search bar; there's no browse option. I only know one person from the Southern Pines area, so I typed in his name. (I felt like a creeper.) No results were found; perhaps it's because he recently moved. After that, I just typed "J. Smith" so I could get some results. (I also tried "Wal-Mart.") I like the way the information is compiled, but honestly, I'm not sure that I saw much use for it. Basically it was the white pages, just on a more specific website. And the button labeled "website" is really just a Google search. Why wouldn't I just use white pages and Google? The website is a nice thought, but honestly, it doesn't seem to offer me anything new or exciting.
As for Bakotopia, there's a lot of stuff on the homepage. I call it stuff because it overwhelmed me and I just really didn't want to look through all of it. One thing I did like on the homepage was the calendar. Other than that, the website pretty much failed. My biggest problem was that there was no news search option (or at least I couldn't find one). If I'm looking for a specific article, I don't want to look through pages and pages of articles I don't care about. My other big concern was that the classified links didn't exactly work. They would take you to a page, but the page always said "no posts in this category." That was frustrating. A tiny contention I have, and this problem is barely worth mentioning, had to do with the ads. I realize that Bakersfield is in California and marijuana is legal there for medical purposes. I'm OK with that, and if we're asking my personal opinion, I don't see why it shouldn't be legal everywhere. That's totally beside the point. The point is that some people don't share my opinion, and when they see an ad for "420 Evaluations" that promises weed to anyone with pot leaves all over the background of it, they may be taken aback. I realize that websites need ad revenue, but if the ads you choose to run make your customers run away, is it worth it? Of course I have no research on this subject at all, and for all I know, all users of Bakotopia may love weed. The name of the site certainly makes me question.
I'm a little biased toward Ushahidi because I spent some time in Kenya this summer. I appreciated that they had an extensive "about us" section so that I knew exactly what the website was about (although honestly the video almost put me to sleep). The downside is that the application (or whatever exactly it is) has to be downloaded. That seemed like too much, so I didn't bother with it. Doesn't it seem likely that other people would feel that way too?
Bluffton, although slightly overwhelming like Bakotopia, actually had really good organization. There's a place to search, and everything is divided into sections. I like that. Guardian seemed similar, with everything you could want in one spot.
Gas buddy, which I assume everyone enjoys, is really convenient. I think it's a great example of useful information put into an easy-to-use database. The unfortunate part is that it doesn't have gas prices for everywhere (such as my hometown), but overall, I think it does a pretty good job.
After all this rambling, you might ask what my conclusion is. And I would tell you ...
Making a useful, easy-to-use and simple database is hard.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Blogging & News
I've been really into blogging since before I could drive. I participated in a blog for class when I was a freshman in high school, and then I created my own on Myspace when I was a sophomore. I blogged about my thoughts, my life and pretty much everything that no one found interesting. To me, it was just an online journal. I had plenty of readers, but I never thought about trying to get more. When I outgrew Myspace (which was more recent than I would like to admit), I moved back to Blogger, where I had originally discovered the world of blogging several years before. When I moved, none of my readers followed. For the first time, I was actually writing just for myself. It didn't bother me ... until I met a community of bloggers.
When I moved to Boone this summer, I didn't know anyone besides my aunt and a few long-lost high school friends. I'm an introvert, so I enjoyed my time by myself. But by the middle of June, I craved to become a part of the community I saw at work. This community was a group of people in their mid and late 20s and early 30s who seemed to know more about the world than I did. And they did. Specifically, they knew more about blogging. There's Paul, who is a photojournalist. His blog focuses on his humanitarian and relief photos from around the world. He also has a blog just for his dog, which is silly but always makes me laugh. (Unfortunately, as it's written by a dog, it's never up-to-date.) Then there's Hope, who is a social media specialist. Her blog is just whatever she thinks of at the time, which is also cool. It reminds me of my blog a little. But my point here is Sarah's blog. I met Sarah at the end of June, and she started her blog shortly afterward. I'm not going to explain the idea behind it - you can check it out for yourself if you're interested.
My point is that Sarah's blog is about as new as mine, but she has hundreds of readers. She publicized among her friends (as in we talked about it over lunch), and we all linked from our blogs to hers. (You can check out my post about it here.) Other than that, she's done very little. She somehow knows how people find her blog - I suspect she's using Google Analytics. People come to it in the most random ways; someone even found it by searching for porn. (If you've taken a look at Sarah's blog, you'll see that she's radical but doesn't have a lot to do with porn.) But what makes these people click? And, more importantly, after they click, do they read?
In class today, Dr. Thornburg asked how so many people know about and participate on Yadkin View. I assume it mostly spreads by word of mouth. My parents didn't really get sucked into it until news about my brother and his basketball abilities appeared; at that point, I think someone told them about it.
I think online news functions in several ways like a blog. So how do we get readers to turn to it? Obviously Yadkin View doesn't advertise; perhaps it's only spread by word of mouth. Yet almost everyone in Yadkin County knows about it. Sarah doesn't publicize her blog a lot, and she still has hundreds of readers, many of them people she has never met or even heard of. How do they do it? It's the unanswered question. Maybe someone has the answer. I certainly don't, as can be seen from the amount of people who view my blog.
It blows my mind to see how many followers and readers some people have. I just don't understand how it works. And yet I think it's a pretty important part of blogging and news. If we don't know why readers come to our website, how can we ensure that they stay there? If we don't find out, I'd venture to say they won't stay.
When I moved to Boone this summer, I didn't know anyone besides my aunt and a few long-lost high school friends. I'm an introvert, so I enjoyed my time by myself. But by the middle of June, I craved to become a part of the community I saw at work. This community was a group of people in their mid and late 20s and early 30s who seemed to know more about the world than I did. And they did. Specifically, they knew more about blogging. There's Paul, who is a photojournalist. His blog focuses on his humanitarian and relief photos from around the world. He also has a blog just for his dog, which is silly but always makes me laugh. (Unfortunately, as it's written by a dog, it's never up-to-date.) Then there's Hope, who is a social media specialist. Her blog is just whatever she thinks of at the time, which is also cool. It reminds me of my blog a little. But my point here is Sarah's blog. I met Sarah at the end of June, and she started her blog shortly afterward. I'm not going to explain the idea behind it - you can check it out for yourself if you're interested.
My point is that Sarah's blog is about as new as mine, but she has hundreds of readers. She publicized among her friends (as in we talked about it over lunch), and we all linked from our blogs to hers. (You can check out my post about it here.) Other than that, she's done very little. She somehow knows how people find her blog - I suspect she's using Google Analytics. People come to it in the most random ways; someone even found it by searching for porn. (If you've taken a look at Sarah's blog, you'll see that she's radical but doesn't have a lot to do with porn.) But what makes these people click? And, more importantly, after they click, do they read?
In class today, Dr. Thornburg asked how so many people know about and participate on Yadkin View. I assume it mostly spreads by word of mouth. My parents didn't really get sucked into it until news about my brother and his basketball abilities appeared; at that point, I think someone told them about it.
I think online news functions in several ways like a blog. So how do we get readers to turn to it? Obviously Yadkin View doesn't advertise; perhaps it's only spread by word of mouth. Yet almost everyone in Yadkin County knows about it. Sarah doesn't publicize her blog a lot, and she still has hundreds of readers, many of them people she has never met or even heard of. How do they do it? It's the unanswered question. Maybe someone has the answer. I certainly don't, as can be seen from the amount of people who view my blog.
It blows my mind to see how many followers and readers some people have. I just don't understand how it works. And yet I think it's a pretty important part of blogging and news. If we don't know why readers come to our website, how can we ensure that they stay there? If we don't find out, I'd venture to say they won't stay.
Friday, September 10, 2010
How I would develop a small-town newspaper
My first thought on this idea of receiving a million dollars (or whatever arbitrary amount I received) to create a newspaper for a small town is to just take the money and run. But somehow I think that doesn't count. So my next thought is "The Yadkin Ripple." And then, as is necessary, I cringe a bit. But honestly, I just checked out their website and it doesn't look so bad. However, I want to put something else out there.
This "something else" is called Yadkin View. I'm slightly ashamed to even link it to my blog. In the "Your View" section, the extremely conservative people argue with the few liberal people in the county. About 98 percent of the posts are misspelled and prejudice. It's ignorant, it's gross and it's appalling. But it's one of the best ways to communicate in Yadkin County. I in no way endorse such a site. Yet I think they have something that a lot of newspaper sites are lacking. And if I were given a million dollars to create a newspaper, I would have to find a way to combine the two ideas.
Before I begin, I just need to say forget print. Print is fine and all, but we can use it in the same way we've used it for a hundred years and be fine. For small towns, you can't just get rid of the print stuff. People eat it up. But I want to focus on online media.
My idea is to incorporate this Yadkin Ripple and Yadkin View into one thing. We need knowledgeable journalists to start the discussions. Otherwise posts end up completely off-topic and full of things that most people don't want to read. Journalists will work in the same way they work for print news, but the stories might vary a little. For one, obviously, online news can be much more up-to-date. I find that often local papers don't utilize their websites as much as they could - breaking news could go online, but often it sits on a desk until the next paper is produced and is then put online.
Once these stories are published online, a discussion needs to be encouraged. People publish so freely to Yadkin View, but there are few comments on articles from The Yadkin Ripple. Why is that? I think people may feel intimidated by the newspaper's website. It seems professional, whereas Yadkin View looks like something where anyone can post. I'm not sure how to make a local newspaper's site look more friendly and inviting. Perhaps the best thing is to just spread the word through the print edition and by word of mouth. Those old people sitting at Bojangle's might like to talk about the idea of also being able to communicate about the news online. I think it's unlikely, but you never know.
I have just a quick word about the reading ... I want to keep this blog readable, so I don't want it getting too long. First, I like the idea of repurposing news for online. Taking news straight from the newspaper and posting it on the website isn't working. People want to see something different, something more - otherwise why would they bother with a website? My main idea is that online news is fresher, especially for local newspapers that may only publish two or three times a week.
Also, I think computer programmers should definitely be hired in newsroom. Of course I can learn programming, but my skill is in writing. If a company hires me to do both, they're losing out on someone who may be a great programmer but just can't write. We all have our specialties. People who are programmers know how to work with websites to make people visit them. I don't. I understand that newspapers don't have the funds they once did, but maybe sucking it up and hiring a programmer would bring in more money.
I like the idea of making abstract ideas concrete. That's probably why this class will actually be beneficial. We're going to make prototypes, and we're going to fail. And maybe sometimes we'll succeed. We can sit here and talk about what we should do all day - but until we actually try it, how will we know if it works?
Finally, I just want to point out a mistake. The last blog I read talked about API's. I do happen to know what API's are, but I wasn't positive so I looked it up. I have to imagine that I'm not the only person who wasn't sure. Bloggers, especially those who write for news organizations, need to stop using language and abbreviations that not everyone is familiar with. I hate when people do that because then I feel like an idiot. And maybe I am, but in this case, I have a good feeling that API was typed into Google more than once while people were reading that blog.
Those are my thoughts on journalism in small towns and the blogs we read. I'd like to talk about these thoughts even more, but in the interest of everyone reading right now, I'm going to cut myself short. I'm sure we'll discuss in class, anyway.
This "something else" is called Yadkin View. I'm slightly ashamed to even link it to my blog. In the "Your View" section, the extremely conservative people argue with the few liberal people in the county. About 98 percent of the posts are misspelled and prejudice. It's ignorant, it's gross and it's appalling. But it's one of the best ways to communicate in Yadkin County. I in no way endorse such a site. Yet I think they have something that a lot of newspaper sites are lacking. And if I were given a million dollars to create a newspaper, I would have to find a way to combine the two ideas.
Before I begin, I just need to say forget print. Print is fine and all, but we can use it in the same way we've used it for a hundred years and be fine. For small towns, you can't just get rid of the print stuff. People eat it up. But I want to focus on online media.
My idea is to incorporate this Yadkin Ripple and Yadkin View into one thing. We need knowledgeable journalists to start the discussions. Otherwise posts end up completely off-topic and full of things that most people don't want to read. Journalists will work in the same way they work for print news, but the stories might vary a little. For one, obviously, online news can be much more up-to-date. I find that often local papers don't utilize their websites as much as they could - breaking news could go online, but often it sits on a desk until the next paper is produced and is then put online.
Once these stories are published online, a discussion needs to be encouraged. People publish so freely to Yadkin View, but there are few comments on articles from The Yadkin Ripple. Why is that? I think people may feel intimidated by the newspaper's website. It seems professional, whereas Yadkin View looks like something where anyone can post. I'm not sure how to make a local newspaper's site look more friendly and inviting. Perhaps the best thing is to just spread the word through the print edition and by word of mouth. Those old people sitting at Bojangle's might like to talk about the idea of also being able to communicate about the news online. I think it's unlikely, but you never know.
I have just a quick word about the reading ... I want to keep this blog readable, so I don't want it getting too long. First, I like the idea of repurposing news for online. Taking news straight from the newspaper and posting it on the website isn't working. People want to see something different, something more - otherwise why would they bother with a website? My main idea is that online news is fresher, especially for local newspapers that may only publish two or three times a week.
Also, I think computer programmers should definitely be hired in newsroom. Of course I can learn programming, but my skill is in writing. If a company hires me to do both, they're losing out on someone who may be a great programmer but just can't write. We all have our specialties. People who are programmers know how to work with websites to make people visit them. I don't. I understand that newspapers don't have the funds they once did, but maybe sucking it up and hiring a programmer would bring in more money.
I like the idea of making abstract ideas concrete. That's probably why this class will actually be beneficial. We're going to make prototypes, and we're going to fail. And maybe sometimes we'll succeed. We can sit here and talk about what we should do all day - but until we actually try it, how will we know if it works?
Finally, I just want to point out a mistake. The last blog I read talked about API's. I do happen to know what API's are, but I wasn't positive so I looked it up. I have to imagine that I'm not the only person who wasn't sure. Bloggers, especially those who write for news organizations, need to stop using language and abbreviations that not everyone is familiar with. I hate when people do that because then I feel like an idiot. And maybe I am, but in this case, I have a good feeling that API was typed into Google more than once while people were reading that blog.
Those are my thoughts on journalism in small towns and the blogs we read. I'd like to talk about these thoughts even more, but in the interest of everyone reading right now, I'm going to cut myself short. I'm sure we'll discuss in class, anyway.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Reconstruction of American Journalism
Things I didn't understand
Advocacy Journalism
It's not so much that I don't understand what this is. In fact, it's my favorite kind of journalism because it doesn't even try to claim to be unbiased. Let's be honest here - I'm opinionated. And I can write without my opinion most of the time, but sometimes it slips through. Anyway, I suppose I just don't understand whether the author thinks advocacy journalism is posing a threat to traditional unbiased journalism and if that's necessarily a bad thing.
The whole Attributor/Fair Syndication Consortium
I think that maybe I could understand this if I weren't so tired and I read slowly, but I've looked over it a couple of times, and I really just don't understand what's going on with the whole thing.
How could a newspaper be a nonprofit?
The article says something about newspapers being an educational nonprofit, but I think that's a bit of a stretch. With education, people gain knowledge. With news articles, people generally gain information. After pondering over it for a while, I decided to see what I could find on the Internet about knowledge vs. information, and this definition from the Knowledge Research Institute, Inc. is the best one I found:
"Knowledge consists of facts, truths, and beliefs, perspectives and concepts, judgments and expectations, methodologies and know-how.
Can loyalty keep a paper afloat?
The writer of the article seems to think that if newspapers succeed at getting nonprofit status, they will be kept in business by loyal donors. I'm aware that people donate to all sorts of things, but I just have doubts that enough people will be loyal donors to newspapers.
What are the advantages of pro-am reporting?
First off, I just don't understand how this method will help newspapers. Secondly, I only see it hurting professional reporters. If we allow amateurs to take over the journalism world, where will our jobs be? I don't care if that's selfish. I'm in the journalism school because that's what I want to do with my life, and if someone else wants to be a reporter, that person should be in the journalism school too.
How do news organizations make government information more easily accessible?
This one is pretty self-explanatory. I just can't even grasp how much work that would be for us, and I haven't decided if that's even our job. As watchdogs, perhaps it is. Or perhaps we should make our government do it somehow.
Things that were left out
Do reporters sometimes make situations more dramatic?
There was a lot in the article about how reporters are necessary because they expose so much information. But I just have to wonder how much we expose that we shouldn't. This is more of a personal problem I have with journalism rather than something in the article. I'll get back to that in a moment, but I want to discuss this problem. I agree that the government should share information freely, and when they won't, I think we, as journalists, should find it anyway. But sometimes I feel like we intrude on people's personal lives. Forget privacy laws. They let us do a lot more than I think is necessary. Back to the article now ...
Besides experience, what exactly can reporters offer the general public that a Facebook news feed and Twitter cannot?
Honestly, I get a lot of my news from Facebook and Twitter. As a journalist, I'm reluctant to admit this fact. But the thing is, I have a lot of friends who post articles and videos that are interesting to me. I don't have to sift through pages of stories to find what I want to read. I have most of it right in my news feed. The article said that although journalism has become more of a community thing, reporters still offer the necessary experience. After thinking about it, I think the best thing reporters offer that Facebook and Twitter cannot is reliability. Once one of my friends posted an article about zombies. It legitimately said they had found real zombies, and it looked like it was from a legitimate news site. Obviously it wasn't reliable. The one good thing I can think of offering the general public is reliability. Most journalists take time to check sources and facts so that we don't publish trash and lies.
How can newspapers get as much revenue online as they do in print?
Maybe this question should be up in the "Things I didn't understand" section. I don't have a lot to discuss about it. I just wish the article had explored more options because I left it still feeling like online news will never find the revenue that it does in the print world.
How would micropayments work? A lot of people only read PART of a news story.
To me, this idea was just stupid. For example, when I was at work this summer, I read the headlines on CNN. When I saw something that piqued my interest, I clicked on it. And then my boss would walk up and tell me to go interview someone. (Normally he gave me more specific instructions than that.) So I would read the first paragraph to pass the time, and once I got the idea of the article, I moved on to something else. I think a lot of people get their news this way. If you try and force someone to make micropayments on every article, I just don't see it working. I wouldn't do it.
If students collaborate with news reporting, what will that mean for current reporters? Jobs are already scarce.
I'm concerned about this problem because I'm graduating early - in December. And while I think it's great for students to get experience, I don't want students taking jobs I'm applying for just because they'll work for free. My point is that I don't really see this idea solving problems. I like what our class is doing; I feel like we're solving problems without taking people's jobs. But it seemed like the article was suggesting that students should actually report, etc. with local news, and it just seems like that's taking jobs away from other people. If the article is talking about internships, obviously that's different - students have to apply for internships so there is still some competition, and they can also get the experience they need that way.
I'm aware that not all of this blog is completely on-topic. It's the best I can do right now. I thought a lot of the smaller issues in the article (which I commented on above) were more questionable than the larger issues. That's why I focused on them.
Advocacy Journalism
It's not so much that I don't understand what this is. In fact, it's my favorite kind of journalism because it doesn't even try to claim to be unbiased. Let's be honest here - I'm opinionated. And I can write without my opinion most of the time, but sometimes it slips through. Anyway, I suppose I just don't understand whether the author thinks advocacy journalism is posing a threat to traditional unbiased journalism and if that's necessarily a bad thing.
The whole Attributor/Fair Syndication Consortium
I think that maybe I could understand this if I weren't so tired and I read slowly, but I've looked over it a couple of times, and I really just don't understand what's going on with the whole thing.
How could a newspaper be a nonprofit?
The article says something about newspapers being an educational nonprofit, but I think that's a bit of a stretch. With education, people gain knowledge. With news articles, people generally gain information. After pondering over it for a while, I decided to see what I could find on the Internet about knowledge vs. information, and this definition from the Knowledge Research Institute, Inc. is the best one I found:
"Knowledge consists of facts, truths, and beliefs, perspectives and concepts, judgments and expectations, methodologies and know-how.
Knowledge is accumulated and integrated and held over time to handle specific situations and challenges.
Information consists of facts and data organized to describe a particular situation or condition.
We use knowledge to determine what a specific situation means. Knowledge is applied to interpret information about the situation and to decide how to handle it."
Apparently there is a difference. And I just don't think newspapers can pass as education.
Apparently there is a difference. And I just don't think newspapers can pass as education.
Can loyalty keep a paper afloat?
The writer of the article seems to think that if newspapers succeed at getting nonprofit status, they will be kept in business by loyal donors. I'm aware that people donate to all sorts of things, but I just have doubts that enough people will be loyal donors to newspapers.
What are the advantages of pro-am reporting?
First off, I just don't understand how this method will help newspapers. Secondly, I only see it hurting professional reporters. If we allow amateurs to take over the journalism world, where will our jobs be? I don't care if that's selfish. I'm in the journalism school because that's what I want to do with my life, and if someone else wants to be a reporter, that person should be in the journalism school too.
How do news organizations make government information more easily accessible?
This one is pretty self-explanatory. I just can't even grasp how much work that would be for us, and I haven't decided if that's even our job. As watchdogs, perhaps it is. Or perhaps we should make our government do it somehow.
Things that were left out
Do reporters sometimes make situations more dramatic?
There was a lot in the article about how reporters are necessary because they expose so much information. But I just have to wonder how much we expose that we shouldn't. This is more of a personal problem I have with journalism rather than something in the article. I'll get back to that in a moment, but I want to discuss this problem. I agree that the government should share information freely, and when they won't, I think we, as journalists, should find it anyway. But sometimes I feel like we intrude on people's personal lives. Forget privacy laws. They let us do a lot more than I think is necessary. Back to the article now ...
Besides experience, what exactly can reporters offer the general public that a Facebook news feed and Twitter cannot?
Honestly, I get a lot of my news from Facebook and Twitter. As a journalist, I'm reluctant to admit this fact. But the thing is, I have a lot of friends who post articles and videos that are interesting to me. I don't have to sift through pages of stories to find what I want to read. I have most of it right in my news feed. The article said that although journalism has become more of a community thing, reporters still offer the necessary experience. After thinking about it, I think the best thing reporters offer that Facebook and Twitter cannot is reliability. Once one of my friends posted an article about zombies. It legitimately said they had found real zombies, and it looked like it was from a legitimate news site. Obviously it wasn't reliable. The one good thing I can think of offering the general public is reliability. Most journalists take time to check sources and facts so that we don't publish trash and lies.
How can newspapers get as much revenue online as they do in print?
Maybe this question should be up in the "Things I didn't understand" section. I don't have a lot to discuss about it. I just wish the article had explored more options because I left it still feeling like online news will never find the revenue that it does in the print world.
How would micropayments work? A lot of people only read PART of a news story.
To me, this idea was just stupid. For example, when I was at work this summer, I read the headlines on CNN. When I saw something that piqued my interest, I clicked on it. And then my boss would walk up and tell me to go interview someone. (Normally he gave me more specific instructions than that.) So I would read the first paragraph to pass the time, and once I got the idea of the article, I moved on to something else. I think a lot of people get their news this way. If you try and force someone to make micropayments on every article, I just don't see it working. I wouldn't do it.
If students collaborate with news reporting, what will that mean for current reporters? Jobs are already scarce.
I'm concerned about this problem because I'm graduating early - in December. And while I think it's great for students to get experience, I don't want students taking jobs I'm applying for just because they'll work for free. My point is that I don't really see this idea solving problems. I like what our class is doing; I feel like we're solving problems without taking people's jobs. But it seemed like the article was suggesting that students should actually report, etc. with local news, and it just seems like that's taking jobs away from other people. If the article is talking about internships, obviously that's different - students have to apply for internships so there is still some competition, and they can also get the experience they need that way.
I'm aware that not all of this blog is completely on-topic. It's the best I can do right now. I thought a lot of the smaller issues in the article (which I commented on above) were more questionable than the larger issues. That's why I focused on them.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
All those important details about Whiteville, N.C.
Who, what, when and where
The population of Whiteville is 5,148 (2,253 male and 2,895 female). This is important because it shows us what size of audience we're working with. BUT NOTE ...
The News Reporter is the official paper for all of Columbus County. This is important because is shows that the paper probably also serves surrounding towns in the county.
The average age in Whiteville is 41, which is above the national average. Twenty percent of the population is over 65. This is important because older people are less familiar with the Internet and thus online news will need to be easy to navigate and understand.
The two most-represented races in the county are white and black/African-American, with 61 percent and 37 percent respectively. Only 4 percent of people speak a language other than English outside in their households. This is important because it shows that the community is not extremely diverse, so we won't have to pay a lot of special attention to other ethnicity and racial groups.
The population over 25 is 3,489. Out of those people, 75 percent have completed high school and 23 percent have a bachelor's degree, which is close to the national average. This is important because it shows that the audience probably has an average intelligence, meaning the news should be presented in neither an overly-intellectual or a dumbed-down way. It is important to note, however, that there is still a high drop-out rate, meaning many young people may not care to be informed about news.
The percentage of people in the labor force is 52 percent. The average household income is $25,455 (the average family income is $34,128), which is far below the national average. Below the poverty level, there are 254 families and 1,360 individuals. This is important because it shows that many people may not have the extra money to buy a newspaper or to have Internet in their homes.
The closest "big city" to Whiteville is Wilmington, which is about an hour away. This is important because we should note that people may often travel there for entertainment, etc.
There are 1,332 people who "like" The News Reporter Facebook page. This is important because it shows that several readers do have an online presence.
Things I don't know but want to know
It would be important to know how knowledgeable The News Reporter staff is about online news. I will try to find that information by simply asking staff members what they know about online news and how it works.
It would be important to know who the advertisers are currently and which advertisers would be interested in pursuing online advertising. It will also be important to figure out the best way to generate revenue from this advertisers. I will try to find that information by looking at the current paper and current site, talking to businesses around the area and looking at research about how other online newspapers generate ad revenue.
It would be important to know how the paper currently engages people in community building. I will try to find that information by interviewing people in the community.
It will be important to know how advanced the paper's site already is and what can be improved. I will try to find that information by reviewing the site in-depth and by asking people in the community.
The population of Whiteville is 5,148 (2,253 male and 2,895 female). This is important because it shows us what size of audience we're working with. BUT NOTE ...
The News Reporter is the official paper for all of Columbus County. This is important because is shows that the paper probably also serves surrounding towns in the county.
The average age in Whiteville is 41, which is above the national average. Twenty percent of the population is over 65. This is important because older people are less familiar with the Internet and thus online news will need to be easy to navigate and understand.
The two most-represented races in the county are white and black/African-American, with 61 percent and 37 percent respectively. Only 4 percent of people speak a language other than English outside in their households. This is important because it shows that the community is not extremely diverse, so we won't have to pay a lot of special attention to other ethnicity and racial groups.
The population over 25 is 3,489. Out of those people, 75 percent have completed high school and 23 percent have a bachelor's degree, which is close to the national average. This is important because it shows that the audience probably has an average intelligence, meaning the news should be presented in neither an overly-intellectual or a dumbed-down way. It is important to note, however, that there is still a high drop-out rate, meaning many young people may not care to be informed about news.
The percentage of people in the labor force is 52 percent. The average household income is $25,455 (the average family income is $34,128), which is far below the national average. Below the poverty level, there are 254 families and 1,360 individuals. This is important because it shows that many people may not have the extra money to buy a newspaper or to have Internet in their homes.
The closest "big city" to Whiteville is Wilmington, which is about an hour away. This is important because we should note that people may often travel there for entertainment, etc.
There are 1,332 people who "like" The News Reporter Facebook page. This is important because it shows that several readers do have an online presence.
Things I don't know but want to know
It would be important to know how knowledgeable The News Reporter staff is about online news. I will try to find that information by simply asking staff members what they know about online news and how it works.
It would be important to know who the advertisers are currently and which advertisers would be interested in pursuing online advertising. It will also be important to figure out the best way to generate revenue from this advertisers. I will try to find that information by looking at the current paper and current site, talking to businesses around the area and looking at research about how other online newspapers generate ad revenue.
It would be important to know how the paper currently engages people in community building. I will try to find that information by interviewing people in the community.
It will be important to know how advanced the paper's site already is and what can be improved. I will try to find that information by reviewing the site in-depth and by asking people in the community.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Need Help?
Hey again :). I received a couple of questions on Facebook about how to upload HTML to a server, so I'm just posting this blog to help everyone who may be having trouble. I'm generally not a good teacher, but I tried to write the steps in an easy-to-understand way. These steps are for a Tripod account, but I'm willing to bet that other services work very similar. Take a look, and if you still need help, feel free to contact me on here or Facebook. (By the way, I will be the first to admit that I'm definitely no expert ... I only know the basics, but I just wanted to offer my service.)
I got my site at Tripod because it's free. Once there, create a domain name ... Pretty simple so far. Next you need to download Filezilla, which is also free. Once you have that, type your HTML into a text document (use Notepad) and save it ... I usually call my first page index.html. When you have that saved, pull up Filezilla on your computer. At the top, you will need to type the host (ftp.tripod.com), your username and your password. Click on "quick connect."
At that point, you should find the file index.html under your local site. (The box on the left.) Drag it to the box on the right (the remote site), and it should transfer automatically. Type in the URL to your site on your Web browser, and you should see your page. I hope that helps :).
I got my site at Tripod because it's free. Once there, create a domain name ... Pretty simple so far. Next you need to download Filezilla, which is also free. Once you have that, type your HTML into a text document (use Notepad) and save it ... I usually call my first page index.html. When you have that saved, pull up Filezilla on your computer. At the top, you will need to type the host (ftp.tripod.com), your username and your password. Click on "quick connect."
At that point, you should find the file index.html under your local site. (The box on the left.) Drag it to the box on the right (the remote site), and it should transfer automatically. Type in the URL to your site on your Web browser, and you should see your page. I hope that helps :).
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